[Rejected] Mintpool

[Wingnettle]

As you approach, you are unnerved by their smoldering gazes.

You know you're being judged for all your worth, but you're determined to make your case. It's not every day cats try to reincarnate, and you're tired of being trapped here. Perhaps your first life didn't go as planned.. but the next one is going to be better.

All you have to do is answer them.

"What makes you stand out from the rest of the cats who want another chance?"

Mintpool walked slowly in the beautiful landscape she had around her.
The whole ground was covered in mirror like-water that showed countless shining stars from the dark, black sky above.

She felt her body quivering. Was it fear or excitement? Was it foreboding or apprehension?

A voice echoed strong and powerful in her head. She knew it was that way, because she felt it vibrating and radiating the voice back.

She thought about it for a long time, remaining in silence. Staring at the steely, cold water that soaked her paws. But she didn't feel cold, despite the little quivers that run up all her back.

...Stand out? That's what I had the opportunity to do in my past life, and that I did not take. She thought with frustration, dipping her head as he did so. Could the mysterious voice hear her back?

"...I chose a path that diverted me from my true goal, and I lost every one of the cats I loved." It was true. If she hadn't followed Slatestripe's trail and left Riverclan, she would still be amongst her clanmates. She would follow her daily life and carry out the duties that she was destined to from the day she was born.

"Had I accepted my mentor's decision and live peacefully with it, I would still... be Riverclan. I would've followed Gingerfrost, accompanied Lilyleaf to her grave and say goodbye to Pikestar... my friends..." she murmured in a whisper, lowering her gaze to her paws. "...It didn't have to go this way."

"...I took the wrong decision. I see it now. And that's why I can't remain in Starclan." She looked at the dark starry sky with desperate eyes that asked for forgiveness, for a chance. An opportunity.

"Please... let me go back." she dipped her head again in a humble way, as if she was silently praying. And she was probably doing so.

Who could've blamed her? If her medicine cat could've seen how sick her mind had become after Slatestripe disappeared... maybe all of this would've been story. But life wasn't going to let it pass. She fell and fell more and more into the darkness, a black veil enveloping her whole brain until she could see nothing more than a thick fog in front of her. She wandered and wandered without ever finding what she was looking for.

How could one be more unlucky?

[dino.]

Goosefury - Vengeance of the Wardens
scarred, gray and white bicolor tom with one green eye || starclan

It had been some time since Goosefury had floated around these parts. A single green eye, disdainful and almost disinterested, watched the newest applicant from the shadows as she approached. A coldness overtook his expression as he listened to the names that fell from her mouth. One he didn't remember, two he only knew as disgraceful.

He melted out of the darkness, pale starlight swirling around his paws to mark his coat and silently announce his status. A single head tilt at a slight angle was the only gesture Mintpool received. "Snowleap and Gingerfrost," he mused. "Two cats who failed to live up to do right by their Clan, and you say you would have followed them both. Countless others did the same and most faded into obscurity because that's what our Clan became under Snowleap and Gingerfrost's 'guidance'." A twitch of his ear. "Dedication is only admirable to a point. If you would have gone along with everyone else then, that would mean becoming just another cat in the crowd, not exceeding them. Going back now with that outlook would mean falling into the status quo without molding things for yourself, wouldn't it?"

[ @Wingnettle + others ]

[Wingnettle]

A starry, feline shape appeared after summoning countless shiny stars from the black sky. Mintpool, after all this time, was still taken aback by the darkness that enveloped the great Starclan lands.

A white and gray tom made his appearance before her. How she could tell the color of his starry pelt was a mystery, but somehow, his name was immediately known to her when he chose to speak.

She flinched, then retorted back: "You say that Gingerfrost and Snowleap have failed, yet they sustained loyally Riverclan until their minds allowed them to do so. If it weren't so, then Riverclan wouldn't stand anymore."

She could see what Goosefury's point was, yet she knew they were failing to see hers. A terrible sense of desperation grasped her, but a hidden force held her body still and pushed her to speak further.

"If I had remained, I would have supported them in shaping Riverclan into what it is today. They saw greatness in every one of its cats, and I lost my chance to do so." And it was true. Her life had been gone in what had seemed a blink of an eye.

"When twolegs kidnapped my mentor from home, I was blinded by a terrible desperation. I could see reason no longer, and my own body was failing me, for my mind couldn't accept the truth.

Now I stand here before you to humbly tell you that I reached that truth too late, and I am well aware of it. I won't challenge you for any decision you'll take after my words..." she said, dipping her head to pray that Starclan would acknowledge her reasons, "but I can't give up yet either. Not when there is a chance to start all over again."

That was it. She had said it.
What was Goosefury thinking? Were other cats from the starry lines coming to hear her? She closed her eyes and squeezed them hard, the silence around her weighing on her like a thousand willow trees' branches.

[Abyssopelagic]

Dewkit simply stared at Mintpool, Goosefury's words ringing almost soundlessly in her ears. She paid them no mind.
He was consumed by his own bias in this moment.
Although she also did not see a reason to bring this cat back to life, she felt her fellow Warden was bringing up the wrong points of her argument.
She appeared from a flurry of stars and allowed her gaze to pierce the once RiverClan warrior as she spoke.
"Your alliances aside, you present a weak argument for why we should bring you back. Everyday cats make choices they want to take back.
Everyday, cats are ripped from their lives in the Clan's by circumstance, and never get to see their home a final time before their death.
But you were not taken from your home. You left, voluntarily. And never once had a change of heart until you died. This does not make me wish to see your side of things.
This does not make you stand out, my dear."
She lowered her gaze from Mintpool's face to her shoulder.

"And, more importantly, what will you do with a new chance, should we grant it to you? Have you any goals outside of not repeating old mistakes?"
It did not help that treachery seemed part of her nature. It hadn't taken much to make her leave home, and abandon those she claimed to love so much.
She'd had more of a chance than most did, and she squandered it. This didn't promote the strongest faith in the kit.
"A good argument for yourself will get you further."

Her gaze flickered towards Goosefury. She wanted to chide him, remind him' 'let's try to remain professional. We attack the argument, not the individual'.
She held her tongue. It didn't do her any good to cause animosity among the other Wardens.
Who's to say she'd have been able to remain level headed if the Covenant and her place in it had been so shortly after she'd died that she could recognize the faces of those that came to them? No, she couldn't promise that she wouldn't have also reacted the same way.

//Lillith let me swap with them for this case \\
[ @dino. , @Wingnettle ]

[Wingnettle]

Mintpool held back a sigh, but in her blue eyes a feeling of despair was taking shape in darker hues. Dewkit seemed so small, yet so wise for such a young kit. How many moons has he resided in Starclan now? wondered a small part of her.

"I left, because I couldn't see what surrounded me anymore without my mentor. My whole mind was... corrupted." she let out, almost in a whisper.

Next, the little kit asked about her next goals. She opened her eyes suddenly, for she now saw a little spark of hope on the horizon. She stretched her legs and bent herself forward.

"Would I ever be granted a second chance..." she began, hoping that she wasn't putting her hope into nothingness, "I would give my life to Riverclan and Riverclan alone. I will take no mates, desire nothing else than the life of a clan cat."

But will it be enough?

She stared at the starry cats judging her from above. She would have never, never imagined that the stars could be so fearsome.

 

I misread old threads and thought that Slatestripe (@/Cherry) was kidnapped by twolegs, but in reality he left Riverclan voluntarily. Please continue without considering my mistakes in the previous posts!

[Wingnettle]

Was told that it was allowed, so... little bump.

[Starfall]

Magpiewisp
Ancient RiverClan medicine Cat || Dark Forest
@dino. , @Abyssopelagic , @Wingnettle

It sounded like the same cookie cutter case he was constantly getting tossed his way. They wanted to do better, they could do better, they had regrets, they have loved ones they need to get to. Over and over. This truly was his eternal damnation. "They make a point. Right now you are giving us nothing of value. Your regrets and wishes are the same as everyone else." the tom stated, stepping out into the clearing they resided within. The fog that clung to his fur lingering for a moment longer than it should. Perhaps it was the frustration.

"RiverClan is in shambles, and yet you say that for the past moons, it hasn't been weak leader after weak leader. Our Clan is getting stepped on, laughed at, and poked at from all sides and yet you say it's a Clan you're proud of?" hopefully with that she would see how immensly shallow her words were. Surely, she'd toss at him a "I believe because they're still there." , "I believe because they're strong, they'll stick through it all." , "I'll believe because we're best together, friendship." . Kindness only gets you so far, and RiverClan has reached it's tail end of riding the waves. It has moons ago. They need to bite. Weak minded individuals like that won't help pave the way to the future.

"You may not have given up, but the universe has decided your fate. We can create a tear in that decision to let something through, but nothing more and nothing less. At the moment. Your case is weak, it holds nothing but emotion and weak, selfish reasonings." Magpiewisp began, pausing to take an angry sharp inhale of breath. "Hope does nothing but create depression. You may soon wallow in it."

(I did want to say! If you could pretty please wait to reply until everyone has replied! Just like a patrol yk /w\ It's for sure ur turn now but than dino, abyss , me and than you etc etc etc that way I can keep track of who the hay is sayin what dhskjnfg )

[Wingnettle]

(sorry for the confusion, I really didn't get it until now!)


Mintpool watched a cat she did not know with sad eyes, listening to his disapproving tone silently until she had the opportunity to reply back.
"...It is true, Riverclan is shattered now. But - what I'm proud of, is the fact that it still stands over the other clans with so little order left in it. I'm proud that Riverclan is still Riverclan, and is still surviving, despite the lack of faith by the last leaders..."

Pikestar - no, Snowleap, might have failed as a leader... but not as a warrior, in her opinion. He had always followed the warrior code, and always protected those he loved. But what about the rest of Riverclan? Did he really abandon those, by giving up his position?

"I am here before you because I made the same mistakes of those leaders. Gingerfrost, Snowleap... I empathize with them because I followed another path, and I am now ashamed to say... that I regret it." she lowered her gaze, bringing it to her paws. She tried hard not to fidget with them.

"And while they might not have done anything more to prove everyone wrong... I am here. I'm still determined as I was before dying, to return once more and fulfill my destiny as a Riverclan warrior." Oh, this was something she hadn't meant to bring up. But she had no choice now.

"Yes, it is true. Before I died I had already committed myself to returning back, but death grabbed me by my neck and before I could open my eyes, I was already in Starclan!" She had now raised her voice desperately, for recalling this memory was one of the hardest things she had ever done. Her death.

[Wingnettle]

Bump

[dino.]

Goosefury wasn't a fan of this one. Basic promises of the bare minimum - he snorted at her promise to give her life to RiverClan. That's what one was expected to do. It didn't make anyone special. His ears twitched as Magpiewisp spoke, and he had to fight back a scoff at Mintpool's next words.

"Death comes for all of us whether we like it or not," he said flatly. "My own was untimely and unfulfilling, and that's just the way it is. Determination means little when you have nothing to put it to. If you can't give me a clear cut reason as to why you deserve this, my answer will be a no."

[ @Wingnettle @Abyssopelagic @Starfall ]